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Industrial Biotechnology
Recent focus on industrial biotechnology has been on supply-side limitations – including on capital supply, human resources and globalisation of R&D. Two OECD Workshops were held in the context of the 2008 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and EuropaBio’s European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology to validate the findings of this work and policy recommendations. The OECD Task Force on Industrial Biotechnolopgy will deliver a policy report on Supply Side Issues for Industrial Biotechnology, this report will provide a set of policy recommendations for governments. The report is aimed to be released in 2010.
The Task Force is currently focussing on the development of a set of OECD Best Practices in Assessing Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Bio-based Products. The best practices are expected to help further development of the bio-economy for its implementation by a wide range of manufacturing sectors where biotechnology is applied. The development of OECD Best Practices is being undertaken under the auspices of the Working Party on Biotechnology and could result in an OECD Council Recommendation. Two workshops are planned where a consensus on the scope and content of OECD Best practices will be built. The recently published OECD case study on “Metrics to Support Informed Decision-making for Consumers of Bio-based Products” will be used as a basis for the development of best practices.
The Task Force will be developing between 2009-2010 an outlook on Industrial Biotechnology which will address new technological trends and applications; finance and business models; development in nature and structure of the industry and challenges for public policy. A workshop is planned to be held in Vienna, Austria,on 14-15 February 2010 to address these areas.
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